Will Ferrell and Mark Whalberg's Football Comedy gets Writer and Director

Last year is was announced that Will Ferrell and Mark Whalberg would star in a comedy based around the sport of Turkey Bowl football called 3 Mississippi. The movie was previously called Turkey Bowl. That film has now landed a the writing and directing team of Sean Anders and John Morris who are currently in negotiations to re-write the project. The is the same team that brought us films such as Hot Tub Time Machine, She’s Out of My League and Mr. Popper’s Penguins. It was originally scripted by by 30 Rock executive producer Robert Carlock and Friends veteran Scott Silveri.

The movie tells the story of the feud between two families over an annual Thanksgiving touch football game that has existed for 50 years. Producer Adam McKay gave a more detailed synopsis in a previous interview saying,

It’s about these two rival families from — we’re thinking Philadelphia but we need to check in with Wahlberg and Ferrell and see what kind of accents they want to do. [Laughs] Alec Baldwin is the patriarch of one of the families, and Wahlberg is his son. He saw the Kennedys playing football on their front lawn at Thanksgiving, and boom, that’s it: “Anything the Kennedys do, we’re doing.” His family starts playing the other family that lives across the park from them. Over the years, Baldwin’s family hasn’t done too well — they own a crappy little bar in town — while the other family, which Will’s character eventually becomes the patriarch of, becomes really successful. The game gets nastier and nastier as the years go on, and Ferrell’s family starts just destroying the other family. After a massive heart attack, Baldwin’s character’s dying wish is that his estranged son, Mark, take over the game and finally win one. So Wahlberg has to put this ramshackle, convict, gambling-addict family back together again and beat the richies. The whole spirit of it is that it’s just a giant, fun ensemble comedy. We want to populate it with people we love. There’s a funny subplot with Rob Riggle where he’s a gay cousin that Wahlberg’s family sort of turned their backs on but he played football at Fresno State and they need him. We’re going to try to get Jeremy Renner to play an ex-con. The idea is to bring in, like, 15 people that we love in and just do a big, funny holiday movie.

The idea behind this film has a ton of hilarious possibilities, and I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with. I play in a Turkey Bowl with friends every year, and I think it's a great setting to base a comedy around. The studio is hoping to start production in September.

Do you think this could turn out to be a solidly funny comedy?

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